**Welcome! Say hello and introduce yourself on this thread**

Hi there jambo - welcome! Were you involved in any groups in your earlier forays into anarchism?

thanks for the welcome. no nothing in an organised sense it was mainly whatever was on. a few of us were into the punk scene and got interested in the anarchist side of it so we would get involved in various demos, strikes etc. nothing was very well organised tho. now im older it seems a bit silly but its part of growing up i guess. now there is a community of like minded people about and easier to reach out to thanks to the internet.

There are a few jambos on the boards already so you should feel at home.

hi! just joined myself. you don't have to live in north scotland to have a difficult job finding like-minded people. dallas is nearly devoid of anarchists, at least i've had a difficult time finding any. the first i met moved here from austin last year, the second i met last week. two anarchists (out of five million people) after searching for a couple of years. now i'm trying to organize something in dallas, so this'll be one possible place to do so.

what are you trying to organize?

at this point, anything. I'm talking to a couple of people about starting an anarchist zine for dallas. at first, i was thinking about organizing a radical queer group like gay shame or something, but i don't think there are enough radicals in dallas to organize something issue-focused (yet). a food not bombs group just started, but from what i've heard, it's been difficult getting people to do anything. one problem is the metroplex is so sprawled out, it can be a long trip for those in the burbs to get together. and the mass transit situation here isn't good either.

I see you are a member of the IWW. Why not be active in the local GMB or why not start one if there isnt already one?

The IWW just started a D/FW GMB last month. It's based in Ft. Worth, but I'm going to see what I can do. There is actually some activity going on in Ft. Worth, including an infoshop. There's just nothing here in Dallas (yet).

he best part of forums like this and the internet in general is that you can at least contact like minded people no matter how far away and swap ideas and thoughts. it gives you a feeling of not being alone.

very true. and it gives you a chance to find people you can meet in the real world. that's my hope, anyway!

http://libcom.org/profile/profile_location/Texas

Hi just joined after being a lurker . I'm 17, stay in Scotland and have just left school and will be going to University (depending on results). I became an anarchist gradually after reading orwell, chomsky and eventually the anarchist FAQ (as well as articles here ). Recently I have read Kropotkin and books on the Spanish Revolution. Never been involved in activism, but hopefully will later on.

Websites like this and infoshop helped radicalise (or politcise) me and are a great resource, so thanks to anyone involved in running them.

Good article John.

I remember there was going to be walkouts at my school but anyone who did do it would be expelled. It's a pity that the anti-war protests couldn't have been more militant .

You're in TSEU? I'm not the biggest fan of CWA and all but why not be active in that (as well as whatever other stuff you want to do)?

I am, and it's probably accurate to say that I'm the most active activist in Dallas. We're pretty independent from CWA. I'm not sure how other unions are organized, but TSEU is actually pretty democratic. My organizer is a long-time anarchist, and she's said before how surprised she was about how democratic TSEU is, and I tend to agree, based on my limited knowledge on how other unions work.

Thanx, catch!

Awesome. CWA affiliates tend to be fairly independant across the board for some reason. My dislike of CWA is more of their lack of industrial focus and their position on fighting against h1 visa immigrants instead of organizing them.

i am lost with this one!!! i am not in anyting especially TSE!!

Sorry, Jambo! We went off on a tangent. TSEU is the Texas State Employees Union which is part of the Communication Workers of American umbrella union.

thank god for that!! i got back from the pub on saturday night and was a little under the weather when i read it. it just did not compute!! cheers

Just got a reminder that I haven't logged in here for donkeys having created an account months ago. So thought I'd best say hello.
I'm English but I live In China now, where I freelance as a translator and try to involve myself in labour issues where I can.
Hoping to knock up a better history of aspects of the popular Chinese anarchist movement in the north east sometime, which i will post here if I ever conquer my terminal procrastination. 世界无政府主义革命万岁 as we say in these parts.

Hi Jim,
a bit late to welcome you to the site but welcome to posting
Sounds like fun tobe out in Beijing a lot of us that use the site are very interested in China at the moment, it looks like a lot is going on, let us know if you hear of anything.
Is Libcom not blocked in China then? And, if you can remember, the admins like to know how people found the site.

Hi Jeff, thanks for the welcome.
I think I must have found the site through some random search on an anarchist topic, as have been involved in the politics to various degrees for almost twenty years now. In fact, I partly came out to China (many years back now) because class politics in a failed Leninist state interested me (though mostly because I got a full grant to come here back in the day and escape shit work back home ).
Certainly a lot going on here now, though I suspect breakthroughs will come in bourgeois organisations like home-owners associations rather than the very disempowered and fragmented workers and peasantry. I'll bore you with me theories when the opportunity arises.
Libcom not blocked but the censorship is arbitrary for English-language stuff. Wonders of proxies help too. You can find anarchist material in Chinese but mostly historical and through a thick Marxist lens, including nicking early heroes as Bolsheviks when they weren't.
Anyway, will try to throw my tuppence in where useful and provide information from sources here.

Jim: just a note to say we'd be very, very interested in any information about things going on in china, so please do. Our stats told us a few people were looking from China - you must have been one of them! Welcome to the forums (if not the site).

Hi.

My name is Sean Sweeney and I've been reading Socialist writings, ideas etc, for two years now. I never really took much interest in anarchism, except with it's involvment in the Spanish civil war. But recently I came across a famous qoute by Bakunin and I supose it just grabbed my attention. I am 17 and live in a flat with my pretty middle class family, though there is a big story behind how we got here and my interests in socialism. Basically my Dad left secondary school at the age of fifteen and went into Joinary aprenticeship. He spent many years doing courses at night school and developing an education in socialism. He was a very active member in the communist party and got fired alot for his involvment in trade unions. When I was fairly young he went to university at the age of 35, we were always quite poor, but for five years after that we lived on my mums wage from a factory job. Once my Dad had finished he went into teaching Joinary and he stayed involved in politics. Slowly after that our standard of living raised and we eventually moved out of the old neighbourhood into one a mile away =]. Ever since the move my Dads been feeling extremely guilty and has been trying to get more involved in politics. I have just been quietly educating myself and observing (a privilage I don't take for granted) and i have discovered a soft spot for anarchism. So that's basically how my Family has a history with socialism and how I became interested in politics. I'm joining this forum to hopefully begin to understand Anarchism a bit better and to have a place to discuss.

Hello,
I live in Britain and am starting to look at websites to cheer me up because the world is nicer on the internet than in 'orrible capitalist, repressive, real life. I hope it might be useful too!